Gregory Thompson's Peace Talks episode is both hard-hitting and thoughtful. He tackles why the dinner table is the BEST place for political conversations and why the church is the best place for cultivating the moral skill of discernment needed for such topics. Don't miss this one!

Gregory Thompson is a writer, artist, cook, and creative leader who works at the intersection of contemplative, the critical, and the convivial. He currently serves as Co-Founder and Creative Director of Voices Underground, a team of scholars, artists, and activists devoted to racial healing through storytelling. He is author of The Welcome Table, a column on Hospitality and Culture at Comment Magazine, of Blood From the Ground: Racial Healing and Public Memory (forthcoming), and co-author of the award-winning Reparations: A Christian Call to Repentance and Repair. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Virginia, and can most likely be found in the kitchen.

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About the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace:
Justice and peace come from the inside out—from the overflow of a transformed heart. This belief led our founder, Bishop Todd Hunter, to start the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace in 2021. The Center brings together a diverse, interdenominational community of people who want to be formed in love to heal a broken world. Because “religion” is often part of the problem, we’ve created a brave, Jesus-centered space for dialogue, questioning, creating, and exploration. PEACE TALKS introduces you to women and men who are working to undo oppression, leading to lives of deeper peace for all.

*Connect with The Center Online!*
Visit The Center's Website: https://centerfjp.org
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This Peace Talks conversation with Sandra Maria Van Opstal goes deep into the people and places that shape us. Sandra shares with host Mariah Humphries how reading Scripture with people on the margins inspires her and working in her garden connects her.

Sandra Maria Van Opstal is a second-generation Latina pastor, activist, author, and a powerful leading voice on the intersection of faith and justice. She is executive director of Chasing Justice, a BIPOC-led movement that mobilizes the next generation of Christians to live justly. Sandra’s distinctiveness comes from working in both local and global contexts as a practitioner and academic, which has solidified her calling to disrupt oppressive systems within the church and center marginalized voices.

She served as executive pastor at Grace and Peace Church on Chicago’s west side and as an activist in her community. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is currently pursuing doctoral work in Urban Leadership and Transformation. Sandra is the author of The Next Worship, Forty Days on Being An Eight as well as contributor to the New York Times bestselling book A Rhythm of Prayer.

Connect with Sandra on Social Media:

• Twitter @sandravanopstal
• Instagram @sandravanopstal
• Facebook @sandramariavanopstal

» Subscribe to PEACE TALKS Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-talks/id1590168616

About the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace:
Justice and peace come from the inside out—from the overflow of a transformed heart. This belief led our founder, Bishop Todd Hunter, to start the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace in 2021. The Center brings together a diverse, interdenominational community of people who want to be formed in love to heal a broken world. Because “religion” is often part of the problem, we’ve created a brave, Jesus-centered space for dialogue, questioning, creating, and exploration. PEACE TALKS introduces you to women and men who are working to undo oppression, leading to lives of deeper peace for all.

*Connect with The Center Online!*
Visit The Center's Website: https://centerfjp.org
Follow The Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerfjp
Follow The Center on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CenterFjp
Follow The Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerfjp/

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Season 8 of Peace Talks is off to a great start! Bill Haley reminds us why social and historical awareness matters as Christians, even as he shares his own worries for this election season and encourages us to rest in God's loving presence.

The Rev. Bill Haley is the founder and Executive Director of Coracle, as well as an Anglican priest and spiritual director. He has devoted many years to ministering in urban contexts, especially in inner-city Washington DC. With his wife Tara and four kids, Bill lives in Falls Church, Virginia.

Bill currently serves on the board for the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace, and has served as chairman of the board for the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, and on the Advisory Council for The Telos Group. From 1996-2019 he ministered with The Falls Church in Falls Church, VA in a number of different capacities, including Director of Outreach and Associate Rector, and was the founding Rector of St. Brendan’s in the City in Washington DC. He served as the Director of Formation for The Washington Institute and previously served as president of The Regeneration Forum and publisher of re:generation quarterly, a magazine devoted to “community transforming culture”.

Bill's publications includes his book, Essential Christianity and articles in The Washington Post, re:generation quarterly, Prism and Sojourners magazines, Inward/Outward of The Servant Leadership School, The Cry of Word Made Flesh, and with The Washington Institute.

» Subscribe to PEACE TALKS Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-talks/id1590168616

About the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace:
Justice and peace come from the inside out—from the overflow of a transformed heart. This belief led our founder, Bishop Todd Hunter, to start the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace in 2021. The Center brings together a diverse, interdenominational community of people who want to be formed in love to heal a broken world. Because “religion” is often part of the problem, we’ve created a brave, Jesus-centered space for dialogue, questioning, creating, and exploration. PEACE TALKS introduces you to women and men who are working to undo oppression, leading to lives of deeper peace for all.

*Connect with The Center Online!*
Visit The Center's Website: https://centerfjp.org
Follow The Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerfjp
Follow The Center on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CenterFjp
Follow The Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerfjp/

Support the show

Bishop Todd Hunter and Director of Content and Community Katie Haseltine recap our recent interview with Rachel Marie Kang. Stick around after their conversation for a contemplative meditation led by Peace Talks host Vanessa Sadler as a way to reconnect your heart to God's.

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In the final interview of Peace Talks season seven, Vanessa Sadler hosts poet Rachel Marie Kang. Their conversation gracefully moves from one moment to the next and reveals the many layers of poetry—as activism, as a holding space for grief, as a way to name. This beautiful interview will stir you to something more.

Rachel Marie Kang is a New York native, born and raised just outside New York City. A mixed woman of African American, Native American (Ramapough Lenape Nation), Irish, and Dutch descent, she holds a degree in English with Creative Writing, and a minor in Bible. She is founder of The Fallow House and her writing has been featured in Christianity Today, Ekstasis, Proverbs 31 Ministries, She Reads Truth, and (in)courage. Rachel is the author of Let There Be Art and The Matter of Little Losses.

» Subscribe to PEACE TALKS Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-talks/id1590168616

About the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace:
Justice and peace come from the inside out—from the overflow of a transformed heart. This belief led our founder, Bishop Todd Hunter, to start the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace in 2021. The Center brings together a diverse, interdenominational community of people who want to be formed in love to heal a broken world. Because “religion” is often part of the problem, we’ve created a brave, Jesus-centered space for dialogue, questioning, creating, and exploration. PEACE TALKS introduces you to women and men who are working to undo oppression, leading to lives of deeper peace for all.

*Connect with The Center Online!*
Visit The Center's Website: https://centerfjp.org
Follow The Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerfjp
Follow The Center on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CenterFjp
Follow The Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerfjp/

Support the show

Bishop Todd Hunter and Director of Content and Community Katie Haseltine recap our recent interview with Makoto Fujimura. Stick around after their conversation for a contemplative meditation led by Peace Talks host Vanessa Sadler as a way to reconnect your heart to God's.

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Peace Talks welcomes the distinguished Makoto Fujimura to the podcast with an in-depth interview on the meaning of art today's world. Fujimura describes art as a means of slowing down, a discovery of your past, and a way to break the cycle of violence. Fujimura shares with hosts Vanessa Sadler and Suzie Lind stories of his own life which reveal that "...broken pieces can give us something new." You don't want to miss this one!

Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose work has been featured
in galleries and museums around the world, including The Museum of
Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library in California, the Tikotin
Museum in Israel, Belvedere Museum in Vienna, C3M North Bund Art Museum in Shanghai, and Pola Museum in Japan. His process-driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of the as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time.” (New York Times) Fujimura is the author of 4 books: Art+Faith: A Theology of Making, Silence and Beauty, Refractions, and Culture Care. He is a recipient of four Doctor of Arts Honorary Degrees from Belhaven University, Biola University, Cairn University, and Roanoke College.

» Subscribe to PEACE TALKS Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-talks/id1590168616

About the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace:
Justice and peace come from the inside out—from the overflow of a transformed heart. This belief led our founder, Bishop Todd Hunter, to start the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace in 2021. The Center brings together a diverse, interdenominational community of people who want to be formed in love to heal a broken world. Because “religion” is often part of the problem, we’ve created a brave, Jesus-centered space for dialogue, questioning, creating, and exploration. PEACE TALKS introduces you to women and men who are working to undo oppression, leading to lives of deeper peace for all.

*Connect with The Center Online!*
Visit The Center's Website: https://centerfjp.org
Follow The Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerfjp
Follow The Center on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CenterFjp
Follow The Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerfjp/

Support the show

In this special episode of Peace Talks, Rev. Bill Haley and Bishop Todd Hunter talk about the online conference they are co-hosting called, "Do You Want To Be Well?"

The threads of Christian nationalism, racism and white supremacy, and patriarchy are not often discussed constructively in the same conversation—and we rarely explore paths toward healing. This online conference will offer something different: opportunities for hope, healing, and spiritual practice.⁠

To register for the conference, go to: https://inthecoracle.org/do-you-want-to-be-well-2024-conference/.

» Subscribe to PEACE TALKS Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peace-talks/id1590168616

About the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace:
Justice and peace come from the inside out—from the overflow of a transformed heart. This belief led our founder, Bishop Todd Hunter, to start the Center for Formation, Justice and Peace in 2021. The Center brings together a diverse, interdenominational community of people who want to be formed in love to heal a broken world. Because “religion” is often part of the problem, we’ve created a brave, Jesus-centered space for dialogue, questioning, creating, and exploration. PEACE TALKS introduces you to women and men who are working to undo oppression, leading to lives of deeper peace for all.

*Connect with The Center Online!*
Visit The Center's Website: https://centerfjp.org
Follow The Center on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerfjp
Follow The Center on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CenterFjp
Follow The Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centerfjp/

Support the show